VIDEO GAME WRITING COURSE

Let’s get introduced - meet your instructor Lorne Nudel.

• Course Structure & Assignments
• Q&A

Understand the function of story within a game and how these stories can be told and experienced. Gain an overview of a typical game development team’s structure, developer roles and the process (and importance) of collaboration within the narrative team.

You’ll cover: 

• Overview of the role of story in video games and how they are told 
• The different game production team roles and responsibilities
• The creative process
• Important qualities to cultivate as a game writer

Workshop: Class discussion of games that you remember being deeply immersive and memorable. 

Develop further understanding of the structure and function of a game’s development strategy, and the importance of writing at each phase. Grasp common processes and tools needed to develop an idea into a product.

You’ll cover:

• The structure of the Game Development Production Cycle
• Development Methodologies including Agile and Waterfall development
• Working with dependencies

Workshop: Break out groups to come up with a story with a beginning, middle and end with a hero achieving their goal.

Assignment #1: Game Choice
Students will write a short summary of the type of stories they enjoy, are interested, and are considering for their class project.

Gain insight into the writing process, tools and workflow required as well as grasping practical methods needed for approaching various writing tasks.

You’ll cover:

• Getting Started
• Research and Cliche
• Story and Meaning
• Theme and Thematic Statement (Controlling Idea)

Workshop: Students will brainstorm themes to guide their game story and experiment with potential thematic statements.

Learn the mechanics of building a story that will cohere with the emerging concept of a game. Look at the constituents of a story and the specific demands that games make of writers.

You’ll cover:

• Character, Setting, Plot
• The Premise: from "What If…?" to a premise
• The Role of Research
• Placing Player Agency at the centre
• Non-Linear Narratives
• Missions and Quest Arcs including time-sensitivity and stopping points

Workshop: Break out groups to develop an example of a premise for a game story- to be used in consequent workshops.

Assignment #2: Students will be asked to write a brief outline of a premise for the game story that will become the final project of the course.

Learn the essential building blocks required to construct a game world in consideration of the constraints and implications they have for an interactive world.

You’ll cover:

• Theme, Genre, and Tone
• Game Genre and Story Genre
• Ethical Considerations
• Licensed or existing I.P.s vs Original I.P.s

Workshop: Work together to further develop the game world that surrounds and informs the premise you came up with. Explain all creative choices to the class.

Look at the many devices available to help to shape players’ experience of stories. Learn their benefits and weaknesses, and consider how they can be used to work together.

You’ll cover:

• Environmental Storytelling
• Narrative Devices including cinematics, readables, player voice and narrator's/inner voice

Workshop: The class is shown a picture of an object. The task is to name the object, describe its purpose, and come up with a back-story for it that all fits within the lore of your particular game world.

Assignment #3: Create an object that serves some purpose in your game world whether it is the ultimate goal of the game to possess it or it is merely a small detail that helps to inform the player of the story. Write up the details that make the object important to the story.

Focus on the development of character at every level of game story. Look at the foundational concepts that inform their creation and the various roles they serve in driving the story forward.

You’ll cover:

• The Role of Characters in Story
• Character Arcs vs Story Arcs
• Internal vs External Conflict
• Character Archetypes

Workshop: Discuss ideas for their Main Character hero including physical description as well as important qualities and/or traits.

Deep dive into the nuts and bolts of developing characters from the ground up. Learn how to create memorable characters that come to life and draw players into caring about the story.

You’ll cover:

• Fear and Desire
• The Lie they believe (flaw)
• Writing backstory

Workshop: Character arcs for the main hero.

Assignment #4: Hero backstory.

As the project heads into its production phase, all the background and planning begins to express itself. Learn how characters tell their stories.

You’ll cover:

• Understanding scope
• Outlining the work to be done
• Advance through Conflict
• Action and Activity / Economy and Clutter

Workshop: Define the work to be done in a scene between your hero and another character and how it will be conveyed, both through dialogue and otherwise.

This class will cover the basics of branching dialogue introducing concepts of conditionals, player choices, and the complexities of character and world reactivity.

You’ll cover:

• Basic Dialogue Trees and use cases
• Immersion, role-play, and player experience
• Managing Outcomes
• Prototyping

Workshop: Define the work to be done in a scene between your hero and another character and how it will be conveyed, both through dialogue and otherwise.

Assignment #5: Outline the scene you will write for your final project. Determine the work that will be done, how it will be used to expose character.

Grasp the final aspects of realising your characters and storywork. Understand their role at each stage and gain the skills needed to execute on the requirements for actors, recording engineers and directors.

You’ll cover:

• Cinematics and in-game dialogues
• Locking scripts
• Storyboarding
• Casting

Workshop: Give each other feedback on their plans for their final scene, helping them to be as clear as possible with regard to the brief.

Cover the finishing touches that prepare a game for public launch. Review the continuing narrative needs of games that continue to evolve over months and years.

You’ll cover:

• Scene Polish
• Text Passes and Localization
• Preparing for Post-Launch
• Interview tips
• The coming role of AI

Assignment #6: Course Project
Write a complete final draft of the scene outlined in the previous class, and presented in standard script format.